Misappropriating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of taking something for one's own use, typically unlawfully, while the term also refers to the improper or unauthorized use of funds or resources
2. It involves the illegal appropriation of assets, often in a financial context, as well as the misuse of entrusted resources for personal benefit
3. This action encompasses both the unlawful taking of property and the unethical use of resources that one is supposed to manage or oversee

Etymology: "Misappropriating" is the present participle of "misappropriate," a word built from two parts that each carry a clear meaning. The prefix "mis-" comes from Old English, where it signified wrongness or error, as in "misdeed" or "mistake." Attached to "appropriate," which comes from Latin "appropriare" ("to make one's own," from "ad" plus "proprius," meaning "one's own"), it produces a compound meaning to take for one's own in the wrong way. The sense of the root matters here. "Appropriate" originally meant to take something as property, and in its neutral modern use it still suggests making something your own, as when a legislature appropriates funds for a purpose. Adding "mis-" flips that legitimate act into an improper one: the money is assigned to, or taken for, uses it was never meant for. The English compound is a straightforward formation from these two parts rather than a borrowed term, so its meaning follows directly from them.

Synonyms: embezzling, misusing

Antonyms: returning, repaying